First things first -- thank you for your incredibly detailed and nuanced response, Catfur! I didn't mean to make it seem like I thought your treatment of the meltdowns was careless; in fact, upon re-reading your last few posts, I think we were more or less in agreement with the effects of radiation in 2011 tea.

However, I still have a hard time believing that nuclear fallout has the same effects as cosmic radiation due to most everything breaking down to alpha emitters (I'm not a physicist and I'm paraphrasing here, so bear with me). I understand the transuranic elements are primarily alpha emitters, but each one brings a slew of different cancers and problems along with it that you don't usually find in frequent fliers or residents of Colorado. I've also heard physicists talk of a lot of larger "hot particles" that have become volatilized thanks to the explosions and persistent releases from the reactors, and these pose an even greater threat when inhaled than the 100-200ms/hr readings that are popping up all over Tokyo.

Also, my point with the 160rem reading was to show that the situation is not under control, the idea of a "cold shutdown" is a total joke, and it's not getting better -- these are the highest readings yet, and Japan's window of opportunity before the corium hits the waterbed is getting smaller and smaller. If Neptunium 239 was ejected over 60km from the reactors, they should be evacuating people within 60km of the plant. Chernobyl's cesium decay isn't behaving like normal, and there's no reason to assume that this multi-reactor fail will behave any better.

Sorry these last few paragraph are so tangential to tea -- I've just been wanting to voice my concerns and questions to a radioactive cleanup specialist since April

beachape wrote:In anticipation for shincha season, is there speculation as to this year's crop? How will radiation levels/isotopes compare to last year?

I will be paying close attention to this, especially for Shizuoka. I have not checked the reporting site lately, but Kevin of O-Cha reported somewhere that levels have been dropping. It would be great to get Shizuoka back in play!

I'm wondering, how much does radiation in tea leaves actually slip into the drink? Tea drink is like 99% water 1% tea after brewing, I don't see why would over 50% of cesium contained in tea get into water during brewing?

beachape wrote:In anticipation for shincha season, is there speculation as to this year's crop? How will radiation levels/isotopes compare to last year?

I will be paying close attention to this, especially for Shizuoka. I have not checked the reporting site lately, but Kevin of O-Cha reported somewhere that levels have been dropping. It would be great to get Shizuoka back in play!

Kevin? Any reports?

I second/third that question!

My tea fridge is getting low on sencha - so I'm eager for the new season/harvest, and excited for any news.

The health ministry says no food or drink product will be permitted to be sold if it has radioactive cesium above the government-set limit.

Under the new rules, the limit for general foodstuffs such as fruit, vegetables, rice, seafood and meat is 100 becquerels of radiation per kilogram, down from 500 prior to April 1. The limit for milk, baby food and infant formula is 50 becquerels per kilogram. For drinking water and tea leaves, it is 10 becquerels per kilogram.

The ministry said local municipalities will be responsible for carrying out testing and that any item measuring above the set standard will not be permitted to be sold.

Some supermarkets, such as Aeon, did not wait for the new regulations and began testing items themselves back in February in order to reassure consumers.

Many consumers, unconvinced by measures taken by the government so far, have steered clear of produce from anywhere near the affected area, leaving farmers with fields full of crops they could not sell and fishermen with catches worth nothing.

Kunio Shiraishi, a former senior researcher at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences, said the current regime of sample inspections has been a problem for public confidence and says blanket testing is the way forward.

Kevin, Thank you for this information.This maximum level of 10 Bq/kg tea leaves seems very restrictive.Among the analysis made in the past weeks, what proportion of samples were inferior to this value ?I found a report showing that in Saïtama and Shizuoka the tea samples analyzed exceed the limits (which limit ? I don't know...).

Well, the reports show the levels are decreasing each time, so that's good. But 10 Bq/kg is basically "zero". Since shincha has not come out yet, it's too early to tell. My guess is that certain districts of Shizuoka (Kakegawa looks promising) will meet the standards, and other areas (Saitama, Shimada) won't.